Manziel’s draft day text might change the NFL Draft forever

News broke that Cleveland Browns’ QB coach Dowell Loggains received a text from Johnny Manziel on the first night of the draft asking the Browns to move up an take him at #22. Manziel gave a little motivation in the test, stating that he wanted “to wreck this league together”.

That text, and the implication that Johnny Manziel really wanted to come to Cleveland, reportedly prompted owner Jimmy Haslam to make the trade up to #22, and take the Texas A&M quarterback. It may be hard to believe, but it came out of the mouth of a Cleveland coach, and it certainly makes for a great story.

But I have two questions about the approach and its results. First of all, could it be true that all of the months spent and all of the experts employed by the Browns could be superseded by a single frustrated text from a 21-year old? Why even bother with draft boards, rankings, and evaluations? Just pick whoever wants to come to your team, and has the guts to tell you so via text during the Draft.

My second question regards the future of first-round draft picks. Will the superstar college players in the 2015 draft get to pick who picks them via text? I can just see a room full of the players, each one on their phone, feverishly texting away to the teams they want to go to. At that point, why even bother with having the teams pick at all? Just have the players choose for themselves. In all seriousness, I guarantee that Manziel’s stunt will be replicated in coming drafts. Maybe not with the amount of success Manziel had by texting Cleveland, but it will be attempted.

Oh, and one last question: how do we know Manziel didn’t send the same text to multiple teams? Food for thought.